Pisa – The European Research Council has awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant to the BIOENACT project, coordinated by Stefano Palagi, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.
The new funding aims to advance the microrobots developed within the ERC CELLOIDS project, ultra-soft, self-sufficient devices that are absorbable and capable of harnessing substances naturally present in body tissues to power their movement. With BIOENACT, Palagi and his research team seek to develop a translational strategy to bring these microrobots closer to clinical application.
This is Palagi’s second ERC Proof of Concept grant. In January 2025, the ERC funded the SOFTINVADERS project, which explores the potential of microrobots in anti-cancer applications, with the goal of enabling them to penetrate solid tumor masses.
The new 18-month BIOENACT project has two main objectives: first, to enable microrobots to sustain themselves using endogenous substances - such as glucose found in tissues - and to degrade and be reabsorbed by the body, ideally producing by-products with therapeutic effects; second, to develop a clear translational pathway toward clinical use.
The expected outcome is a laboratory demonstration of both the biocompatibility and therapeutic potential of the active microrobots developed in the CELLOIDS project.
“In the CELLOIDS project,” Palagi explains, “we are working to equip microrobots with advanced features inspired by immune cells. For instance, by mimicking the remarkable ability of immune cells to change shape - a capability that allows them to move through body tissues - we have developed ultra-deformable magnetic microrobots. In the SOFTINVADERS project, we are investigating whether this property can enable them to penetrate solid tumors.”